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“A sleepy Gervase Greene here in Sydney.” opens a correspondent from down under.
“The Wobblies should be competitive… but doubt they’ll be more than that. There’s a better spirit about the place now (not saying much; thanks Eddie), but the cattle ain’t there yet. Really wish we had Kerevi back, he is so important to stiffen a fairly flaky back six. There’s a lot of unfair expectation being placed on Joseph Sua’alii by the warring code factions here . Fact is, he’s a very bright prospect, but he’s an outside back!”
“We are a couple of heavy duty mongrels short of playing serious Test rugby, and our few previously top-grade players like Taniela Tupou - though still only young - are already on the physical decline. If we get a roll on early, I guess we’re a chance. But not that much of one.”
Andrew Benton emails in.
“I was excited (honestly!) to read that there’s a new Ford Capri - really cool, in a retro revamp sort of way. And then I searched for it, and saw it, and oh my gosh, if that isn’t Australia’s rugby union team in modern car form I don’t know what is.”
Absolutely right.
This game is being played in the wake of Danny Care’s book, which lays bare the horrific culture of playing for Eddie Jones. Most of the players on the park today will have reflections on this, you would think.
Pre match reading
Plenty of opinions on the England team and what they need to do to win games of rugby union football
I’m here and available for all communication via the email. Tell me all your thoughts on the game or anything else.
Teams
Steve Borthwick has been consistent in his selections for a while and this continues with his selection today.
For Australia, the big talking point is the already mention selection of Sua’ali’i at 13, the most important position in the back division both in attack and defence. The NRL convert was Jones era deal, but Schmidt seems convinced by the 21-year-old also.
England: 15 George Furbank, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George (c), 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Alex Dombrandt, 21 Harry Randall, 22 George Ford, 23 Ollie Sleightholme
Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson (c), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Jeremy Williams, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Angus Bell
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 James Slipper, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Max Jorgensen
Preamble
We are often told to keep things in perspective, in particular that things are never quite as bad as they feel. There’s been a lot of that recently for people with their attention focused on US politics, the relaunch of the Ford Capri, or the men’s Australia rugby union team.
Wins this year have been scarce and against the likes of Georgia, Portugal and the much troubled Wales, while the defeats have been plentiful and often humiliating; including shipping 67 points vs Argentina in the Rugby Championship and coupled with dwindling crowds. No surprise the vibe around the squad and the sport is poor as they commence this tour and look forward to welcoming the British & Irish Lions next summer. Is it all as bad as it feels?
Perhaps not. They have Joe Schmidt, and while the results have been rubbish for a while they do at least look like they have a plan of how he wants them to play. A plan that may function eventually rather than some diabolical, ego driven dystopian nightmare that stains us all like the one Eddie Jones clearly had. The selection of league convert Joseph Sua’ali’i to start a test match at outside centre in his first union match since schooldays speaks to the current Australian state, but Schmidt is not usually a starry eyed bloke, so you have to be believe this forms part of the the longer term improvement. It would be some statement if Schmidt could start to really make his mark in this match.
History does not favour the Kiwi-born coach, with a solitary Wallaby win in the previous eleven meetings and while England have had nothing more than a fair to middling 2024 at best, they are showing enough form to put this particular Aussie offering away.
One of these sides will be heavily trying to keep things in perspective come the final whistle, we’ll know which in a few hours.
